Releases

Enigmatic London-based black midi bring you their debut album Schlagenheim via Rough Trade
Records on June 21st.
Since forming just over a year ago, black midi — Geordie Greep (vocals/guitar), Cameron
Picton(bass/vocals), Matt Kelvin (guitar/vocals) and Morgan Simpson (drums) — have quickly cemented their reputation as one of the hottest new underground bands, following a string of sold-out UK live dates and surprise shows punctuated by constantly shifting sets and blistering musicianship.
They bonded over shared musical enthusiasms, or “liking messed up things” as Kelvin puts it, including an appreciation for rapper Danny Brown, Death Grips, Deerhoof, Miles Davis and Talking Heads, who they like so much they called a song… Talking Heads. Greep says that “we’ve always tried to make it heavy but danceable, melodic but good rhythms. It is accessible music, there are experimental aspects that we’ve taken from when we went crazy at the beginning, we’ve just reigned it in to make something that is pop music.”
These new tracks were recorded in an initial burst with Speedy Wundergrund producer Dan Carey. In November, black midi retouched older recordings, and laid down eight songs in just five days. Drawing comparisons to groups like Shellac, Can, This Heat, & Slint, that’s only half the story to this deeply uncategorizable music. These songs are slippery creatures, the sparks from a musical unit that’s constantly in a state of flux and development.
Recently, the band played their first North American live shows, were named a standout act at SXSW and sold out several dates in the Northeast, including their first two shows in New York.
black midi will return stateside this July for Pitchfork Fest and more touring.
black midi’s minimal online and press presence, coupled with their uncompromising youth, has caused the music world to gravitate towards them and their indefinable sound. They are impossible to put your finger on, but equally impossible to ignore.
The album is available as a UK import 180 Gram vinyl offering in a gatefold sleeve with lyrics on the centre + collage, slim jewel case CD w/ J-Card insert plus a bonus fold out poster featuring lyrics and collage and a limited edition cassette.

“In the past year, black midi have gone from pub-circuit eccentrics to figureheads of a reputed British rock vanguard, characterized by anxious hooks and lyrics tetchy at London’s transformation into a business class playground.” – Pitchfork

“Almost every song Black Midi performs unfolds in surprising ways, one riff quickly switching to another, one mellow passage blooming into caustic screams and dissonant guitars, songs constantly collapsing in on themselves and being born again.” – Stereogum, “Band To Watch”

“They were one of the most talked about groups at SXSW this year, and for good reason—Black Midi laid waste to every stage they stepped onto and damn near burned the city to the ground.” – Paste, “The 20 Best Acts We Saw at SXSW 2019”

“[black midi is] a group of four prodigiously talented musicians, applying their anarchic internet-age sensibility to their country’s long and proud tradition of intellectual noise-splattered punk.” — SPIN

“The originality, virtuosity and sheer, impossible-to-categorise oddness of Black Midi is a breath of fresh air.” – The Times

“Black Midi are like lightning in a bottle. A rarity. A multifaceted band fully deserving of the furore
surrounding them; from their impeccable musicianship to the originality of their mystique.” – Gig
Wise

“…sometimes they’re post-punk, psychedelic, noise, prog, rock, indie or blues. But they are none of the above, something indefinable and new.” – The Quietus